Constant Changing of the Guard at Trump's Spite House, DC

[bodysong]

Constant Changing of the Guard at Trump's Spite House, DC

Many enter Trump's service, but they do not stay long-

The divide between the real world, and Trump's
Alternative Universe is a chasm

February 21, 2020

Trump has instructed aides to identify and remove officials
across the government who aren’t defending his interests,
and he wants them replaced with loyalists.

“The president likes acting [officials] (temps) better,”
one White House official said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...d2b4ec-53f1-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html

Trump Faces Deadline On Acting Director Of National Intelligence

2020/02/18

The head of U.S. intelligence, Joseph Maguire, has held
that position in an acting capacity for six months.

As required by law, President Trump will soon need to choose
a permanent head of national intelligence that may or may not
be Joseph Maguire.

It's worth just remembering that there was some friction
with the past director of national intelligence - with Trump's
first DNI, Dan Coats, back before he left this past August.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/18/8071...e-on-acting-director-of-national-intelligence

A Game of Pretend

Minion of Trump, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.) assists the farce
that will oust Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire

Maguire is popular with the rank and file that do the actual
work of national intelligence in the real world.

Trump pretends that he is angry with Maguire,
and Trump pretends that he believes Maguire
is to blame for Pierson’s remarks.

Trump pretends to believe that Pierson had given the assessment
exclusively to Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.)

Shelby Pierson was appointed election threats executive under
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in one of the
final acts of then-DNI Dan Coats before he was hustled out of
the Trump administration.

2019/07/28/

Dan Coats leaves position, after serving more than
than two-and-a-half years. Removed and replaced
because he contradicted Trump with the truth.

Trump has already parted ways with two national security
advisers, two homeland security chiefs, a defense secretary,
a secretary of state and a U.N. ambassador.

The only survivor from Trump's original team is Mike Pompeo,
who began as CIA director and is now secretary of state.

In one of his final acts, Coats named Shelby Pierson, a veteran
of the intelligence community, to serve in a new position as the
overall head of election security efforts.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/28/6963...resident-trump-to-depart-top-intelligence-job

FFS, nearly everyone in the world knows that Russia helped
Trump win the 2016 election.

All that was said is that Russia would prefer to see Trump re-elected.

December 9, 2016

“The lack of an administration response on the Russian hacking
cannot be attributed to Congress,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.),
the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who
was at the September meeting. “The administration has all the tools
it needs to respond. They have the ability to impose sanctions. They
have the ability to take clandestine means. The administration has
decided not to utilize them in a way that would deter the Russians,
and I think that’s a problem.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.93054ad8b3b6

"Moscow Mitch" McConnell bocked 3 bills that protect 2020 elections

February 13, 2020

Senate GOP blocks election security bills as intel report warns
of Russian meddling in 2020

The SAFE Act and the Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections
for a Lasting Democracy (SHIELD) Act, which requires offers of
foreign assistance to be reported to the FBI, were passed by the
House last year but have been repeatedly rejected by Republicans.
Senate Republicans also rejected the Defending Elections from
Threats by Establishing Redlines (DETER Act), sponsored by
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.,
despite bipartisan support. The bill would have imposed
sanctions on Russia if U.S. intelligence agencies determined
that Russia interfered in a federal election.

https://www.salon.com/2020/02/13/se...tel-report-warns-of-russian-meddling-in-2020/

 

[markspa901]

Do you post from your phone? It's tough to read your posts.

 

[bodysong]

An intelligence official warns a legislative-branch committee
about a threat to U.S. elections, and Trump’s response is to rage
about how the warning is a risk to himself politically. .

That it could be a useful talking point for Schiff is Trump’s own
fault, of course. Trump could actively reject Russian interference
and have taken concrete steps to block their interference, but he
hasn’t. Democrats can use that disinclination as a cudgel against
him.

It seems that, to Trump, anything that undermines him is, by
default, something that undermines America. Les cinquante etats,
c’est lui, (The Fifty States, it’s him) if you will. It’s an actualization
of the actual argument made by his attorney Alan Dershowitz during
the impeachment trial. Dershowitz claimed that Trump might see his
own reelection as essential for the defense of the country and, therefore,
that actions taken to ensure that reelection were actions intended to aid
the country. It was a ridiculous claim in the context of the impeachment
but an insightful argument in the context of Trump’s view of the presidency.

He is not the only one who holds this view of his presidency, that there
is greater risk to the country in revealing Russia’s efforts than there is
in reinforcing Trump’s preferred, inaccurate worldview. On “Fox &
Friends,” the Fox News daily news briefing, co-host Pete Hegseth
argued that it was the media who was aiding Russia’s efforts to sow
discord by reporting on what happened with Maguire.

Pete Hegseth presented the story as somehow coming from Russia.

“The Democrats, the media fell for it, and they keep falling for it
because they hate Trump so much,..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...es-about-trumps-presidency-seem-be-confirmed/

bodysong comment-

Alice in Wonderland moment in Trump's Alternative Universe-
According to FUX TV, Allowing the House Committee on intelligence
to get confirmation from the intelligence department, that Russia prefers
Trump, and giving a warning that Russia likely to interefere in the 2020
election, is a harmful act against America, and it is the Democrat's fault,
and the press and media's fault, because...

according to FUX TV, they (Democrats and media) are sowing discord
and giving out disinformation, and delegitimizing our Republic."



FFS, there has been nothing but discord since Trump began his
election campaign- There's no harmony remaining, even inside
Trump's Alternative Universe. The kings of disinformation live
at FUX TV. (They get called on it, and they get caught at it.)
Blame the Democrats for de- legitimization ? A healthy
organism fights off a parasite, and defends itself, and that is
what the world sees- a legitimate government defending itself
from a group of people that lie, cheat, steal, that are willing to
enable an illegitimate, evil lunatic of a leader, because they
are greedy cowards. They gave America an insane king, who
believes the law does not apply to him. Fuck! All Trump had
to do was appoint a permanent Director for National Intelligence-
Acting DNI Joseph Maguire is not a clone of traitor AG Bill Barr,
and Joe Maguire did not lie.

Trump wanted him gone- The world is watching Democrats
trying to rescue America from the sewer that Trump dragged
it in.

/end bodysong comment

Pete Hegseth: The Real ‘Agents of Russia’ Are Democrats
and Media Reporting on Election Interference

Fox News host Pete Hegseth made the stunning claim
that the media and Democrats who publicly comment
about Russian interference in U.S. elections are helping
Russia “sow discord and disinformation and delegitimize
our Republic.”

To make sure his point was not lost to Fox & Friends viewers,
he added “they are willing to parrot what The Kremlin is saying.
They’re the agents of Russia. Not Donald Trump, not this White House.”

“Every single media member in that clip, every single Democrat
that parrots what they are saying, they are working together,
they’re the agents of Russia, this is what Russia wants
they want to sow discord and disinformation and delegitimize
our republic. Destabilize it. They are not our friends, they know
when we are strong they are in a worse position,” Hegseth said.

At the start of the Friday morning episode of Fox & Friends,
Brian Kilmeade commented on the election interference news
by offering this explanation to viewers:

“Russian operatives working to get Americans to repeat disinformation.”

According to Hegseth, the Americans spreading disinformation on
behalf of Vladimir Putin are those critical of President Donald
Trump, though others may see it the other way around.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/pete-he...and-media-reporting-on-election-interference/

 

[markspa901]

I want to read this but it's a disaster in formatting.

 

[bodysong]

New York Magazine ✓
Twitter › NYMag

The willful castration of national security when a foreign
adversary seeks to sabotage an American election is
Trump's gravest act of lawlessness yet.

@frankrichny

2 hours ago

 

[KeithD]

If he keeps it to political appointees, he's just messing around with his "best" people.

 

[bodysong]

Temps in Trump's Alternative Universe

Trump has kept acting (temp) officials in charge of top agencies
and departments so much that they've accounted for 1 out of
every 9 days in those positions." That means that in the 22
cabinet-level jobs there have been so many acting officials
that they've served a combined 2,736 days, which amounts
to seven years. That means that in three years' time, Trump
"has had acting officials serve more than three times as much
as did [President] Obama" did in eight years.

The Defense Department has been run by an acting (temp)
head for 203 days

February 21, 2020

Mick Mulvaney claimed in a private speech this week that
he’s still in an acting (temp) capacity because his OMB
salary is higher. “It’d be a $20,000 pay cut to take the job,”
Mulvaney said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...fficial-cabinet-level-job-1-out-every-9-days/

He said he was not concerned about his “acting” title 14 months into
the job and noted he got the offer the first time he ever met the president.

“It’d be a $20,000 pay cut to take the job,” he said, adding he was
able to keep his old salary instead of taking a lower one that other
chiefs of staff took.

“A life expectancy of a chief of staff is roughly 18 months,” he said.
“Generally speaking, this job does not last that long. . . .
Who knows how much longer I’m going to last?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...=lk_inline_manual_14&itid=lk_inline_manual_14

 

[Ziggins]

Government employees are part of the inertia of the status quo. Naturally there is some turnover. As Stephen Colbert said, "He said he'd fire everybody, and he delivered."

 

[bodysong]

No Senate confirmation for either of them-

Grenell isn’t subject to Senate confirmation because
Trump appointed him on a temporary basis.

Kash Patel, a former acolyte of Rep. Devin Nunes, is now a top
adviser in the Office of National Intelligence

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...ni-post-116546

Kashyap "Kash" Patel Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)’s top staffer
on the House Intelligence Committee

Patel previously worked as Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)’s top
staffer on the House Intelligence Committee and was the lead
author of a report questioning the conduct of FBI and DOJ
officials investigating Russia’s election interference.

Republicans later used the report to bolster arguments that the
probe was a plot to take down President Donald Trump.

Grenell will remain as ambassador to Germany while serving
as intelligence chief. Seems like Grenell’s job as intelligence
chief is to play dumb.

— Sarah Heller (@Sheller49) February 21, 2020

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/02/b...-dni-dangerous

Richard Grenell

WTF ?

President Donald Trump’s new acting intelligence director,
Richard Grenell, used to do consulting work on behalf of
an Eastern European oligarch who is now a fugitive and
was recently barred from entering the U.S. under anti-corruption
sanctions imposed last month by the State Department.

It’s not clear whether the articles were directly part of
Grenell’s paid consulting work for Plahotniuc. (promoting
positive press for Plahotniuc- Grenell lied in op-eds)
Unpaid work could still require disclosures under Foreign Agents
Registration Act if it was directed by or primarily benefited
a foreign politician, according to Matthew Sanderson, a lawyer
at Caplin & Drysdale who advises people on complying with FARA.

FARA is the same law that Trump’s former campaign manager
Paul Manafort and former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates
were convicted of violating. (Manafort went to trial. Gates pleaded guilty.)

Plahotniuc lost power in 2019 and fled Moldova. His current
whereabouts are unknown. Last month, the State Department
endorsed the corruption allegations against him, banning him
and his family from entering the U.S.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/tr...or-a-european-oligarch-accused-of-corruption/

The people familiar with the move cautioned that the president
had a history of changing his mind on personnel decisions after
they were revealed in the news media.

Under American law, Maguire had to give up his temporary role
before March 12. He could return to his old job as director of
the National Counterterrorism Center, but he might choose to
step down from government.

Trump can choose any Senate-confirmed official to replace
Mr. Maguire as the acting head of the nation’s 17 intelligence
agencies.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ntelligence/1I99yw2NWxIEbaIpG88rZK/story.html

 

[bodysong]

Sally Yates ✔@SallyQYates

This is a screaming red siren, but in the daily barrage of crazy,
can we hear it?Trump is not only trying to rewrite history of
Russia’s intervention in 2016, he is now using the power of
the presidency to conceal their 2020 scheme to re-elect him.

Dangerous!

12 hours ago

Trump Is 'Using the Power of the Presidency to Conceal'
Russia's 2020 Scheme to Re-elect Him, Says Former
Acting AG

2/21/20

Yates' comments on Trump and Russia's potential intervention
in the upcoming U.S. presidential election stem from recent
reports from NBC News and The New York Times in which
Trump became angry at his then-acting Director of National
Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, for briefing lawmakers on
Russia's plan to interfere with the 2020 election to re-elect
Trump.

We should not lose sight of why POTUS fired the AG
because he wants a political crony to protect him from
the investigation of his own campaign.The rule of law
is disappearing before our eyes.

My column from a year ago when POTUS began trying to
humiliate the AG into resigning.

— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) November 7, 2018

Yates was fired by by Trump on January 30, 2017

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-usin...cheme-re-elect-him-says-former-acting-1488495

Sally Yates:
Trump thinks the Justice Department is his personal grudge squad

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...tice-department-is-his-personal-grudge-squad/

February 14, 2020

Sally Yates served as deputy attorney general from
January 2015 to January 2017.

 

[bodysong]

Marc Short, defended Trump against racism accusations
following the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/19/marc-short-university-virginia-trump-protest-700348

He was rewarded for his Public Relations work
and recycled and hired as Mike Pence's aide

Marc Short's recycle bin- a job at the University of Virginia

Hired as senior fellow at the Miller Center, a wing of the university
focused on presidential history and public policy

Short received an MBA from the university’s business school.

07/19/2018

Objections erupt at University of Virginia over
appointment of top Trump aide

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/19/marc-short-university-virginia-trump-protest-700348

Those that did the real work of teaching at the university,
and recording real history, left the university
"...faculty members severed ties with the center.."

A petition to reverse the decision has gathered nearly 4,000 signatures.

Four thousand people at the university did not want Marc Short
to be hired by the University of Virginia

(Trump's Alternative Universe is at the larval state of developement)

On one hand-
universities must be open to diverse viewpoints, including
those that conflict with mainstream opinion or may seem
threatening to specific groups. Students and faculty who
share Trump’s viewpoint should be free to speak without
censorship. Universities must remain for free inquiry and
debate. Moreover, schools and institutes of public affairs
\must offer student and faculty opportunities to engage
with the policy makers of the day.

On the other hand-
there is the danger of normalizing and legitimizing what can
only be described as an odious presidency. Trump violates on
a daily basis the normson which liberal democracy rests. He
undermines freedom of the media and independence of the
judiciary, upholds racism and sectarianism, and promotes
prejudice. He blithely utters one falsehood after another.

Those who serve with him are necessarily tainted by the experience.
Trump’s close associates and political appointees are his enablers —
regardless of their personal merits and how much they try to
disassociate themselves from Trump’s utterances. Qualities like
intelligence, effectiveness, integrity, and collegiality — words
used by Miller Center Director William J. Antholis to justify
Short’s appointment — have little to commend them when they
are deployed to advance an illiberal political agenda.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion...inistration/O5B3oTf9CD0vXhNkwjO6EL/story.html

July 12, 2018

White House legislative affairs director Marc Short,
one of President Trump’s longest-serving and more
visible aides

Marc Short is joining the Guidepost Strategies consulting firm
and will teach at the University of Virginia’s business school,
where he received a degree, and also serve as a senior fellow
at the university’s Miller Center.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...595098-85d0-11e8-9e80-403a221946a7_story.html

Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Pence, sought
to pin the blame on Schiff. Short argued that the California
Democrat’s committee was “selectively leaking out information
and often distorting information.”

That claim prompted a swift pushback from host Chris Wallace,
who asked Short, “I don’t understand, you’re saying it’s not true
and they leaked it?”

Short demurred, saying only that “that was a classified briefing
that shouldn’t have been discussed.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...48a0bc-5670-11ea-9b35-def5a027d470_story.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/23/russia-help-trump-short-pence-116812

Robert O'Brien helped Trump gain good publicity
by negotiating for hostages- now he is forced to
lie for Trump to keep his job

Trump's National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...629724-da18-11e9-bfb1-849887369476_story.html

O'Brien is insisting that he "has not seen" any intelligence
to indicate that Russia is again attempting to boost
Donald Trump's campaign.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...ows-to-parrot-false-Trump-intelligence-claims

Trump security adviser slammed for 'politicizing intelligence'
on Russian meddling

Robert O’Brien says he has not seen evidence Russia is
boosting Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...viser-robert-obrien-russian-election-meddling

 

[KeithD]

In all of that, you failed to note that Short left UVa well short (pun intended) of his one-year appointment. He left UVa a year ago, in February 2019.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Marc-Short-Is-Leaving-UVa/245739

 

[bodysong]

February 23, 2020

Marc Short challenged the notion that Joseph Maguire was dismissed
as acting director of national intelligence because of the House
briefing, saying that the president hoped to find another
administration job for Maguire.

Short also said he disagreed with retired U.S. Navy Adm.
William McRaven, who wrote in a Washington Post op-ed
that Maguire was “dismissed for doing his job: overseeing
the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about here,” Short said,
referring to McRaven.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/22/nevada-caucuses-live-updates/


This week, Trump also asked for the resignation of John C. Rood,
the official in charge of Defense Department policy, who had
certified that Ukraine had met anti-corruption obligations
required by law to receive U.S. aid that Trump froze.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...=lk_inline_manual_11&itid=lk_inline_manual_11

 

[bodysong]

Marc Short is able to say these words without laughing,
on camera

"false information"

"bad information"

Aaron Rupar ✓
Twitter › atrupar


SHORT:

It's concerning that Schiff's committee continues to leak

WALLACE:

So you're saying reports that Congress was briefed about Russia
helping Trump are inaccurate?

S: That was classified. I'm not going to comment

(Short is as shameless as they come)

10 hours ago

 

[bodysong]

"in some of the most critical corners of the Trump administration,
officials show up for work now never entirely sure who will be there
by the end of the evening — themselves included."

https://www.axios.com/trump-memos-deep-state-white-house-ce5be95f-2418-433d-b036-2bf41c9700c3.html

Trump’s Efforts to Remove the Disloyal Heightens Unease Across His Administration

Even for an administration that has been a revolving door since Day 1,
this has become a season of turmoil.

- Peter Baker

The Trump White House and its allies, over the past 18 months,
assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust —
and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them — according to
more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort who spoke to
Axios.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/...on=click&module=Top**0Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Trump has been compiling a List of Patriotic Public Servants
in Government so he can Purge them

February 23, 2020

- Jonathan Swan

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...c-servants-in-government-so-he-can-purge-them

Warning list of signs of Fascism , featured below article that
exposes Groundswell

# A well-connected network of conservative activists
with close ties to Trump and top administration officials
is quietly helping develop these "Never Trump"/pro-Trump lists,
and some sent memos to Trump to shape his views, per sources
with direct knowledge.

# Members of this network include Ginni Thomas, the wife
of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Republican
Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen.

more-

# Conservative activists who attend Groundswell meetings funneled
names to Thomas, and she compiled those recommendations and
passed them along to the president, according to a source close to her

 

[KeithD]

As despicable as Trump's purging is, it's being grossly overblown. He can only do this with political appointees. That's a very, very small part of the federal government workforce--and by now most of them in those jobs were Trump administration appointees to begin with.

 

[bodysong]

Remember when the new Trump administration
pointed to all of the dependable, sensible, experienced,
people that could be counted on to control Trump's
excessive and extreme impulses ?

They are all gone.

Trump replaced the experts with goons, like himself.

Trump Chokes When Asked ‘What’s Your Message to Putin’
on Election Interference

https://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=44191

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...our-Message-to-Putin-on-Election-Interference

"The oughta investigate Adam Schiff" — Leaving the White House
for India, Trump deflects from a question about Russian interference
by calling for investigations of his political foes

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2020

 

[markspa901]

Is BodySong just some bot that posts whatever they find on the web?